Audrey Hepburn: A Secret Life (Paperback)

by Stuart J. Byczynski (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This dark story of lies, intrigue, plots and counterplots deals with Nazism and Hollywood, with adoption, with child abuse, with the anti-war movement of the 1960s, with the ballet world, and with official criminality.

In 1947, a young woman travelled from Holland to London and went through a pregnancy in secret, living and working amid a ballet company. Two years later, in 1949, she began an acting career and gave her child away to another young actress on the London stage. The mother was Audrey Hepburn, and in a few years she was famous. Her son, meanwhile, had been taken to America by his English adoptive mother and her husband, a U.S. military pilot who was stationed in England. He grew up in secrecy in Maryland. He was named Stuart Byczynski, and this book is about Audrey's life, her son's birth and adoption, and Audrey's conflicted and menacing behavior toward him.

Not a photo book, this work explores the dark side of Audrey Hepburn's career, revealing new information about her and correcting some of the misinformation in the existing literature.

To make her career in films, Audrey had to suppress any information that she had had a child, as well as her family ties to the Third Reich during WWII. She interfered with the author and arranged for minor Hollywood people to enter his life as acquaintances in order to gather information. In her final years, in the aftermath of the publicity about Joan Crawford's parenting, Audrey did volunteer work for Unicef, perhaps out of guilt over her own abandoned child, but more likely to polish her public image. This book is the kind of thing Audrey dreaded, and it was originally intended for publication while she was alive.

About the Author
Stuart J. Byczynski, after his birth and adoption in London, grew up in suburban Baltimore and graduated from a public high school there. He was actively involved in the anti-war movement of the late sixties; worked for the Library of Congress while attending the University of Maryland in nearby College Park, where his faculty advisor was Prof. Parris Glendening, now Governor of Maryland. At the time he was engaged to a relative of President Nixon. Byczynski became a systems programmer on mainframe computers, and worked for banks, the U.S. House of Representatives, Xerox and other companies. He currently lives in Colorado.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 237 pages
• Publisher: Brunswick Pub Co; 1st edition (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155618168X
• ISBN-13: 978-1556181689
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,892,902 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Creepy fantasy from a sick mind, August 15, 2000

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Apparently any creep with a pen can get a "shocking" book published. (A friend of mine claims that either this guy has some Freudian complex about an attraction to Audrey, or he's trying to place himself in her aura of classic fame. Either way, creepy and bonkers) I guess Peter Ustinov's line was correct: "You cannot libel the dead."

This guy claims that Audrey not only had an illegitimate child, shuttled him off and basically abandoned him, but tried to control his entire life in a calculating and creepy way that all witnesses agree was NOT HER WAY. All accounts point to the fact that Audrey loved children and tried for years to have one, and was shattered by every miscarriage. She actually died as a result of a stressful trip to visit impoverished children.

But even if you don't believe that she was a kind person, you can believe that some Kitty Kellyish person would have dug it up and found PROOF by now. Other people would have testified something. The account of one person does not a truth make. It's simply disgusting how this man rants on and on about imaginary abuses and manipulations. He needs help, and fast.

In addition to his apparent delusions, the author also has a rotten writing style--he rambles and goes off the general path. The writing isn't tight or interesting at all.

I advise you to read Audrey : Her Real Story, which I think is the best ever bio of Audrey Hepburn. If anyone reads this review and loves Audrey and her memory, I beg you to heed the warnings of most of the reviewers.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Secret Life Indeed, October 16, 2001

By A Customer

This is a secret life Audrey Hepburn led only in the author's deluded mind. I bought the book because I was curious. After a few pages, I wished that, further than reading the back cover blurb, I had flipped through the book to glean some of the choice accusations, then I wouldn't have wasted the money. As another reviewer puts it, I too can't believe the audacity of the publisher to have endorsed such garbage.

Of course it's not outside the realm of possibility that a young, then unknown actress might have had an unwanted pregnancy... but the author is clearly quite insane when he claims to be a victim of unsuccessful attempts of assasination commissioned by his 'mother' not to mention the possibility of his being the result of possible Nazi experiments performed on Hepburn with her knowledge.

Stuart Byscynki needs professional help and he should get it quick!

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Travisty!, December 24, 1999

By A Customer

This book is completely and utterly disgusting. The author is a sadly delusional man. I feel sorry that he was abused as a child but that gives him no right to drag someone else's name through the mud. Audrey Hepburn was extremely devoted to children. There is even a foundation that was established because of her "The Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund" She was obviously a caring person. It is impossible to find a harsh word said about her. In her own words "I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it." Audrey dedicated the end of her like to UNICEF. She literally died for children. She was supposed to make a trip to a place that had been ruined by famine but she had a stomach ache. They told her not to go but she did. Later they found out that stomach ache was cancer. If you see her talk about UNICEF she gets very emotional. God has never produced such a compassionate women. "In a cruel and imperfect world, she was living proof that God could still create perfection." But please disregard the fact that Audrey was so compassionate. If you read any of the other books made about her. Or the TV specials about her you will find that this authors information completely contradicts. If you wan to know what Audreys connection to James Hanson was it's that they were engaged. That was public knowledge. Any Audrey Hepburn fan worth salt knows that. All you need is common sense to realize this book is all lies. I strongly suggest you buy "Audrey: A Son Remembers" By her REAL son Sean Hepburn Ferrer. By the way I only gave this book one star because I couldn't give it a zero.